The Iran Project - Top Iranian filmmaker and screenwriter, Ebrahim Taghavi Shirazi, known as Ebrahim Golestan, died on Tuesday in England at the age of 101.

Ebrahim Golestan passed away on Tuesday night at his home in the United Kingdom while surrounded by his family.

Born in Shiraz in southwestern Iran in 1953, Golestan became a top filmmaker and literary figure as well as a photographer and translator, with a career spanning half a century.

Golestan established his own studio "Golestan Films" in 1953, where he made A Fire (1961), Wave, Coral and Rock (1962), The Hills of Marlik (1963), and the Crown Jewels of Iran (1965) among other masterpieces.

He was closely associated with the Iranian poet Forough Farrokhzad and pushed her into cinema.

He immigrated to England for the first time in 1967 and returned to Iran in 1972. He left his homeland again in 1977 forever and lived for the rest of his life in England.

Art and culture run deep in his family. He was married to his cousin, Fakhri Taghavi Shirazi (Fakhri Golestan). He is the father of Iranian photojournalist Kaveh Golestan and Lili Golestan, translator and owner and artistic director of the Golestan Gallery in Tehran, Iran. His grandson, Mani Haghighi, is also a film director and scriptwriter.